TOP MUMBAI MODEL AND ACTRESS: AMRUTA PATKI ON HER FITNESS MANTRA

Profile: Amruta Patki is a top model in India, former Miss India Earth 2006, former Miss Earth Air 2006, an actress in Hindi as well as Marathi films. Amruta is also a singer and a nominee of Radio Mirchi Music Awards 2013 as best debut singer.
I am actually at a loss for how to even introduce this beautiful and very down to earth Mumbai model. Maybe the best thing is to just start with how I met her. I was browsing twitter one day and the photographer who had done my own portfolio had posted some very nice pictures of Amruta. I became curious and started browsing her Twitter feed and saw post after post about yoga, workouts, pictures of her dinners, favorite foods, etc and became intrigued. So for a few weeks, I just watched…and one day, she posted a picture of her after a workout and I was floored. There was no size zero..there was no waif like model, here was a SUPER FIT and healthy girl who had achieved so much in her only 27 years of age.

So I thought, let me try my luck. Not expecting too much, I tweeted her for an interview. I kid you not, she responded within MINUTES and agreed. At that point, I still expected some starry attitudes or didn’t really expect the interview to happen. Seriously, she was SO easy to respond to my emails, gave me her mobile number right away and we finally were able to speak on the phone . I had promised her I would only take 15 minutes of her busy schedule; she talked with me for almost 45 minutes! And that too, so friendly with all levels of honesty and absolutely no clichéd answers.
So without further ado, I am HONORED to bring you Amruta’s very honest and very interesting past and present fitness &health mantra:

1) Question: Amruta, how do you stay away from the pressure of size zero being in the fashion and movie industry? Isn’t it a common misconception that models are waif like and starve to be accepted? Have u ever felt that you needed to change ?Answer: I believe that all things should be balanced. Input into the body and output from the body should be balanced. I maintain a good diet, eat in moderation, but burn it out. Everything in the universe should be balanced by input vs output and that includes the mind and body.
I definitely do not starve myself because I am a TOTAL foodie. In the last 7 years, I have traveled to over 24 countries for my work and have tried cuisines in all parts of the world (Japanase, African, Indonesian, Malaysian, etc). So I allow myself to binge and eat and have fun. However, to balance the days I do this, I cleanse myself for the days I do not binge. I believe in only home remedies and Ayurveda and so I follow the principles of Ayurveda to ensure I output the toxins from my body.
For example, if I have a shoot coming up, or I have binged with friends the night before, I take to the following routine the next morning and every day until my next indulgence:
1. Be very careful of what I eat for the next few days
2. Drink a lot of hot water first thing in the morning (cleans the system)
3. Avoid carbs the whole day ( no rice or roti for the next 2-3 days)

2) Question: So what do you eat when you are being careful of your diet?Answer: I am a non-vegetarian and I eat chicken, eggs, fish and now recently, I started eating red meat once in a while. I am very careful of this as it is high in cholesterol and makes a person’s personality quite aggressive (you are what you eat concept). In addition, I take an Ayurvedic supplement called Triphala. Since I am traveling quite a bit and am forced to eat out during this time and also an insomniac (which contributes to acidity),
For more information on Triphala, see:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triphala
I also have cultivated a liking to Green tea. I did not like this before, but after I saw how much it improves the skin and I start feeling healthier and lighter, I have started enjoying it more!
The one food group I stay away from are desserts. I LOVE desserts but I stay away from them because they are an absolute ADDICTION. As long as I stay away from desserts, my mind doesn’t ask for them, however , once you start, then the mind remembers it and it is harder to not indulge. So I try and stay away from that.
If I am getting ready for a shoot, I switch myself to Nachni or Oats roti and then stick to a very light dinner such as Salads or a glass of butter milk or a milk shake with little bit of honey. This diet keeps me light and allows me to have a nice flat stomach if I have to show it for my shoots or modeling assignments
(Info on the Nachni grain, aka Ragi, is found here:http://www.mangaloreanrecipes.com/recipes/index.php/food-information/glossary/glossary-data/1372-ragi-nachni-nathno-finger-millets.html)

3) Question: Do you have a dietician to plan your charts? Or do you just know what to do yourself?Answer: I Used to have a dietician in the past, but now I know my body really well and what ti responds to, and no one can know my body like I do, so I take care of my diet myself now.

4) Question: You tweeted once that you lost 2 KG in 10 days. Tell me the secret!? How do YOU manage this? Is it diet or exercise like crazy?Answer: I believe that your weight loss is 70% diet and only about 30% exercise. If you are eating badly, you can workout like crazy and not see results. I only workout for one hour a day. I don’t know why some people log 3-4 hours a day. So, for the times I want to quickly lose 2kg, I will do the following changes to my diet:
a) I completely cut OUT carbs at night and I cut DOWN on carbs during the day.
For r meals like lunch I may have 1 roti+veggie sabizi + salad or fish
b) About 3-4 hours after lunch, I will have an evening meal like sukha bhel, some fruit, 1 idli
c) I mostly do as much liquids as I can for dinner. For example, I will drink 200ML water before I start my meal and then have 2 bowls daal.
I even did a detox diet for about a week where I had UNLIMITED fruits all day.

5) Question: Wow! So isn’t this difficult? Don’t you get hungry!?Answer: Yes, it is very difficult, especially the first day or so. Then, your body gets used to this. But you need to be very mentally strong to do something like this. So you really need to want to do this. Also, people with extremely healthy bodies can do this (perfect blood reports, and physically very fit). I would not recommend anyone to do this and definitely NOT for an extended period of time. It can definitely hurt people with illnesses.
However, at the end and after a few days, I noticed, my skin was GLOWING as my body purged the toxins , my hair was great, all the toxins were gone and surprisingly I was not was not weak at all as someone may think as u get natural sugars from the fruits so u have energy.
I hardly pushed my body to work out during this time. So by the end of 10 days, I lost 2 kg fat and 2 kg muscle.
One interesting thing is that once you are done and you go back ON food, you must do it very slowly. A friend of mine did this with me and started eating normally straight away and her body rejected regular food. Once your body gets used to raw foods, it needs to be introduced to foods slowly. If you take care of what you eat and stick with raw foods, you can lose about 6-7 KG in a month.

6) Question: What are your workouts like? I notice you have all kinds of days when you tweet on twitter?Answer: I keep pushing my body to do different things. For cardio, I like running and cycling. I also do weight training, Pilates and definitely yoga I make sure to keep it to 1 hour a day and not more than that.

7) Question: Talk to me about how you got into Miss India and won Miss India Earth 2006 and went on to be a finalist during the Miss Earth pageant. Did you workout? (BTW, I loved her answer to this question because it is really inspiring):Answer: I always wanted to be in entertainment industry in some way. When I was growing up, I had huge inferiority complex being as tall as a “giant”. So when I got to college and I was asked to participate in a fashion show, I decided to try it. This fashion show was choreographed by a professional photographer. Once I walked for it, he asked me to participate in a Miss Mumbai contest.
One thing to know is, I studied in the Marathi medium in school, so I was not fluent by any means at the time in English. So I was apprehensive of going into a contest and getting on stage, how would I talk in fluent English. But, I went keeping in mind that they would pick me on my beauty and looks, not how well I could speak English. I won that pageant and Hemant Trivedi saw my pictures. Hemant is my guru, my mentor and where ever I am today, I owe it to him.
So I was asked if I wanted to shoot for Hemant Trivedi and I shot for the clothing store Sheetal. He aso groomed me during this time by advising me to start workouts, watch English movies, look on the internet to see pageants, do research on my own on how to walk, how to talk. And then he told me to come for the Miss India auditions.
I believe going for Miss India was destiny as the universe was giving me signs. 1 month prior to auditions was signed up with Pantaloons to be their brand ambassador. And guess what? Pantaloons was sponsoring Miss India that year. So everyone was very excited that I was going to be part of Miss India and I won Miss India Earth that year. I can also speak a VARIETY of languages that helped me such as Konkani, Panjabi, Hindi, English, Gujurati (She spoke to me in PERFECT Gujurati) and Marathi.
(Trust me I was blown away by her admission of not having learned English in school, her English was so perfect, I would never have guessed she self learned).
Then Miss Earth was about 6 months after I won Miss India, so I was put through workouts and dieted for it, worked on my skin and hair as well. At that time, since I did not know my body the way I know it now and I did not work out as much then, it really pushed my body and was quite difficult. I know my body now and I gain weight quite easily. For example, if I just binge for a week or 10 days, I can easily gain 1.5 KG. However, fortunately I can also lose just as quickly. So I have to be careful for events.

8) Question: You are in a profession where it is cut throat, a path full of potential disappointments, criticism. The news today is filled with Jiah Khan’s suicide and that some girls just cannot handle it.
How do you keep your mind calm on a daily basis and through these tough times?Answer: I am very spiritual and by that I don’t mean religious. I believe that there is some form of energy in the universe and to just love and respect people.
You have your own expectations for yourself, and everyone has a destiny and in this rat race in the industry you really just have to be happy, and move on if u don’t get there because it is not the end of the world. It could be you are maybe destined for something else.
So when I find myself with less work or not having the projects I want, I stay positive and optimistic and make sure I keep busy with friends. Or I enroll in courses that help me. Recently I did the art of living course which was great. Also, every year in June a mountain trip is a MUST for me and is like fuel In fact, I just came back from one. It allows me to be within and see Nature, eat health and meditate.

9) Question: Who is Amruta Patki’s favorite celebrity?Answer: I really like Deepika Paudakone. I find her hot and she is always looking so put together and she can carry anything. If I see her at press conferences in jeans and a top or at functions in saris or she is shooting in a bikini or shorts, she NEVER looks unclassy. She can carry off anything with style and class.

10) Question: What is next for you?Answer: Well, I have done modeling, done Marathi films, I just did a song for a Malayalam film (coming out this week!), am looking into Telugu offers. I did a Bollywood film which didn’t go for me as I had hoped, so now I am being very choosy with what offers are coming my way. I have to make sure it is right and I don’t want to take my attention away from the modeling industry. Once you are out of sight, it is very hard to get back in, so I have to make sure whatever I do does not affect my fashion career.